scuta

Since we landed here we were visited by a large canoe with ten natives of the quathlahpahtle nation who are numerous and reside about seventeen miles above us on the lard. side of the Columbia, at the entrance of a small river. they do not differ much in their dress from those lower down and speak nearly the same language, it is in fact the same with a small difference of accent. we saw a great number of snakes on this island they were about the size and much the form of the common garter snake of the Atlantic coast and like that snake are not poisonous. they have 160 scuta on the abdomen and 71 on the tail. the abdomen near the head, and jaws as high as the eyes, are of a bluefish white, which as it receedes from the head becomes of a dark brown. the field of the back and sides is black. a narrow stripe of a light yellow runs along the center of the back, on each side of this stripe there is a range of small transverse oblong spots of a pale brick ret which gradually deminish as they receede from the head and disappear at the commencement of the tail. the puple of the eye is black, with a narrow ring of white bordering it's edge; the ballance of the iris is of a dark yellowish brown. the men who had been sent after the deer returned and brought in the remnent which the Vultures and Eagles had left us; these birds had devoured 4 deer in the course of a few hours. the party killed and brought in three other deer a goose some ducks and an Eagle.

William Clark - The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806